Entrepreneurship

With many friends who have started their own Business I say after observing them that it takes a lot of courage to stop what you're doing now and jump into a complete new journey where we never have an idea what's going to happen next. But that's the way to live life. Isn't it? It isn't a life when you regret not doing things on your death bed. 

Everything starts with just an idea. If you take it further it might be your biggest moment in life but if it's not it'll be a biggest life experience too. Either way you have something to get out of it. Life shouldn't be too monotonous too which would, for a typical employee be like 9-5 job and time with TV in home followed by sleep. These are the exact people who would regret not living the life. I'm afraid even I am one of them.   

I write this when I came to know that one of my old friends has started his own firms which calculates taxi fares for all the cab services in the city. The name of the firm too is interesting Cabdekho.com. People need it these days. With all the services and online shopping websites, we do need one like this which provides all information at one stop. 

So live your life in such a way not to have regrets on death bed. Entrepreneurship is one of such ways to live life. 

Oh and Don't forget to check the website CabDekho. It's damn cool.  

Farewell Happy Days!

This was one of the days to say goodbye!

 I always disliked endings but then they are inevitable. Everything eventually ends. You just say goodbyes in many different ways and then part away. But when we meet again there might be a lot of difference between us today and us on that day. So we bid only the familiarities today. Someone rightly said, “Just because we bid farewell today doesn't mean this is the end. We bid farewell only to meet again.” I find it lucky to have something that makes me saying goodbye very hard.

This should be the day we put all our egos aside and enjoy bidding farewell with pure heart. When you look back to this day after five years it will all seem to be the pettiest of all the problems you’ve then. The best thing in these days is the friendships you keep which will last for life time, of course with a little help from facebook.

“Much of vitality in a friendship lies in the honouring of differences, not simply in the enjoyment of similarities.”   ---Anonymous

When juniors asked me for a message I had many things in mind to say but ended up saying only few. However I’ll pen down the remaining now. As the above quote says it all, just because our thoughts don’t match we shouldn't break friendships. That being said I would also suggest living every moment to the fullest and you can do that by not worrying about future and not regretting past.

In a few years we feel bad about being anger than feeling good about enjoying. Sadness is a guest only for a few moments. Conflicts, they are everywhere. 

Now when conflicts arise, deal being a mature and when happiness, deal with it like a kid.

Stay young at heart! Take loads of pictures.

Overall the entire farewell party went well with an overwhelming joy of celebrating the farewell with a few tears of joy. In the end we all danced our feet off and dispersed. I could sense, it was bit difficult for everyone to part away but then we had to call it a night. Everyone left carrying a lot of memories with them to talk about it someday.

With a heavy heart I bid farewell until we’ll meet again!

Later J

Experience

It was a cold evening in the mid December and at that moment I only wished for a fireplace with a mantelpiece in home. Then thinking it’s not possible now I decided to make tea for ourselves.

Mom asked suspiciously, “Are you sure about that?”

 I asked her, “why not?” half knowing what she had meant and there came the immediate response.

“Because once you start, you end up asking 15 questions about making tea which is absolutely abnormal.”

I challenged her, “You bet?”

‘We’ll see’ was her reply with a grin that I would lose.

I signed my sister to help me with the tea.

There I was almost making tea with of course most of the help from her when a tiny drop of hot tea fell on my hand and I immediately gave a jerk.

“You see that?” my sister asked me. I asked her, “See what?”, again half knowing what she was talking about.

“That sudden movement when a drop fell on you hand? That’s called Experience.” I stared her for a moment then we both burst into laughter. At that moment I had realized the importance of experience. Not that I didn't knew before but I just chose to ignore the realization. Now I realized that the realization hasn't ignored me. :D

So what’s this experience business all about? It’s all about involvement in or exposure to a particular thing or event. This comes from experimenting. A lot of experimenting in an event or thing makes us expert. At this particular point I would like to tell you about a funny discussion with my friend.

We were pondering over some mathematics problem. Then this very good friend of mine told to me, “Trust me I am experienced in this problem.”

“How experienced are you?” I asked him with a sarcastic smile.

“A little bit!” he said bewildered why I had asked him that.

I told immediately, “well, in that case you’re not an expert then how can I trust you?”

He left the place with poker face. :D

Types of Experience

    1.   Physical experience - object or environment changes

    2.   Mental experience – intellect or consciousness experienced with combination of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination.

    3.   Emotional experience – falling in and out of love

    4.   Religious experience – altered state of consciousness

    5.   Spiritual experience – attainment of peace through some spiritual practices

    6.   Social experience – behaving in society.

    7.   Virtual experience – games in computers, simulations etc…

More experience in a thing makes you expert in that. There comes an ambiguity between experience and wisdom. A wise person might be an experienced but the reverse is not true. Wisdom before experience is only words; wisdom after experience is of no avail.

Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the print; experience is what you get when you don’t. 

Now what most of us do? We often tend to learn only big things in life from experience. Rest all we choose to ignore. Let’s not do that and I won’t do that. Some people call mistakes an experience. Yes they are right! But remember people, if experience comes by mistake it’s a valuable experience which is not to be experienced again.

P.S: I however made the tea and my mom was astonished until my sister burst it out with a wink saying “yeah he didn't even ask me”.   

Thank you!

I'll keep writing.

Later :)

Remembering the Gurus !

       If I am able to write this blog and if you’re able to read it,  it’s all because of the teachers. This post is dedicated to all the teachers in the world.

Happy Teacher’s Day!!!

As soon as I woke up early morning, I searched for the newspaper as it has almost become a habit to go through. On reading the newspaper it struck me that today’s the teacher’s day. I quickly called my mom and wished her a Happy Teacher’s Day not only for being my first teacher but also for being a teacher by profession. She was on her way to school. I also wished my dad recollecting everything from the past that he had taught me. I felt a bit nostalgic after I ended my call. 

I remembered all the teachers right  from my childhood, the things we did for them and the ones they did for us. This write up is just to tell you about how it was back then. If I remember  it right I used to take a rose very often to one of my teachers when I was in first standard especially because she used to let me draw pictures in her class and I felt bad for not being able to remember a thing about her now. In those days I was really scared of head mistress as her punishment was hard. It was like a hierarchy; teachers beat you with a stick on your hand for doing something wrong or being mischievous but if the issue is major head mistress used to enter the scene and her punishment was spanking along with beating on legs. It was almost same in every school those days.  
  
      Then I went to this English speaking school in 3^rd standard. Mr Arogyanandan, was my favorite of all. He was just like his name; healthy and cheerful. He always encouraged me to participate in competitions like speech, essay writing, drawing. All the teachers had a soft corner for me. I was considered one of the smartest kid. Back then we celebrated teacher’s day in a unique way. We gifted hair pins to Madams. I know it sounds silly, but that was the biggest gift we could give them. We, sometimes, even collected money that we had saved from previous one week for this event, which usually summed up to 150 Rs and then we used to buy sweets and mixtures for them. Sometimes with the money left, we used to buy pens for all the teachers. Mr. Murali, taught us biology, Telugu literature and Neuro linguistic program as a result they became my favourites. Head master of this school was partially my motivation to speak English fluently. I was an active participant then and still am.

In 9^th class, I joined Bhashyam Residential School. My biology teacher, Mr S S V, that’s what everyone used to call him , always gave us something to think about. That’s a main quality of a teacher according to me. I still remember most of his classes. He not only taught us biology but also how to lead a perfect life which I regret for not following it. There was an English teacher who taught us how to read books, how to feel the characters in it. He used to sing those poems from the textbooks while other teachers just plainly read it aloud and explained it.

Mathematics was my favorite and yet most feared one. Mr Ramaswamy completely changed my perception towards maths. I always used to see it as some problem solving algorithm but he said, ‘maths is a language to understand nature’ by showing us the same mathematics we learnt in the nature’s applications.

In my Intermediate, Narayana Junior College, Mr Sandeep Sanyal was my favourite teacher for mechanics and Mr Aacharya for Electronics. Mr Sandeep talking about Human tendency said, ‘More challenging the problem is, the more interesting it becomes.’ I completely agree with him.

Mr Aacharya was my inspiration for his punctuality and hard work. He used to be on time for the class early in the morning at 5AM while we’re still dozing off in our rooms. He used to create interest in the subject which is the key factor to learn it. The teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the people with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.

Happy Teacher's Day!!!

I always learnt something from my teachers till date and I’ll always keep learning. Though they don’t remember us, though they aren’t in contact, they’ll always be in my heart for making us know the unknown. 

If you hated a teacher for some reason, its time to forget it and realize that they played some role in our learning process. Although I couldn't wish every teacher a Happy Teacher's day, I silently thanked all of them.  

P.S: Nearly everyone I met, worked with, or read about was my teacher one way or the other.

Thank you!

I'll keep writing.

Later J

An Evening Beauty!

         As I stepped out of my room checking the clock on my mobile phone for some work I had in town, I noticed that there was a huge patch of dark cloud in the west. I prophesied that it would rain and so took my hooded jacket along with me as the day I don’t take it, is the day it rains heavily. I got into an auto rickshaw as we can’t rely on public transport always. As I was sitting on that tiny seat towards my right with lot of effort for comfort, I could see the sea. It looked like dawn. I suddenly saw that the moon had risen and was more beautiful than before if that’s an apt adjective. It reminded me of Pranav who says and believes that I have a great obsession for the moon and the sun as I always take photographs of them. 

I heard a girl sitting opposite to me say to her friend, ‘today’s beautiful.’

I pointed out at moon saying, ‘if you didn’t notice it.’

She had to peek outside to look at the moon. ‘Wow! It’s nice!’ she said.  She was getting married in a month or two and she was telling her friend that her wedding day too will look the same. Who doesn’t want the weather to be like this?

June to February is my favourite part of the year in Visakhapatnam as there won’t be much humidity in the air relatively.

So let me describe you what I felt that evening. As I said before, it looked like dawn. But no, it was evening and the sun was about to set in a few minutes. I felt bad thinking that this beauty of nature can be experienced only till the sun sets which is trying hard to give all its light before earth turns her back to it for the day. It seemed to me that earth made a deal with the sun and moon to face them during the day and night respectively. I was enjoying the marine drive and the sight of hills with fog near the shore which was clearly visible from distance. There are three hills on the way from my college to MVP colony on this beach road.

I got down near Lumbini Park which is neglected by GVMC (greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation), though that didn’t matter as hardly anyone goes there. I had to catch another auto from there. I couldn’t see the sea till I reached where I should. By that time the sun had set and it was still bright. The dark patch looked like it slowed down to enjoy the moon’s beauty.

Source: Internet. Remember! i didn't have a camera

I was wrong, the beauty existed even after sun set. I searched for a good vantage point to enjoy the shore and moon. I sat on the beach boulevard, made by the Municipal Corporation which is the only good thing at beach, viewing and experiencing the scene. I saw a ship at a distance through an arch with dolphins on either side of the park’s path holding a globe with GVMC carved on it which seemed like they were preventing it from falling. The ship lit with lights looked like it was on fire but then it wasn’t, because I know if it were, there would have been smoke. The moon was now brighter and was exactly on the top of that ship. I wished I had a camera while watching a person trying to capture the moon in his mobile phone camera which, in vain, turned out to be just a dot in the picture. It reminded me of myself trying the same at one point.

Source: Internet. This is how the place looked where i sat.

The sea was gleaming gold in the dark covering the portion I could see between the arch. I imagined that there would be some wireless connection between the moon and the ship, the latter unable to hold the amount of light transmitted by the former, leaking into sea like oil spill which reached shore. But that’s just a reflection. Ufff my engineering mind!!!   

I realized I was away from civilization though the road was just behind me which I ignored. No electronics and no mechanical materials were visible except for the ships which were more of beauty as they didn’t make noise. But I had a task to complete and I had to go. If it was not for this work, I wouldn’t have enjoyed this evening. So I had to let go of the beauty feeling satisfied with what I enjoyed. 

It reminded me of these famous lines from Robert Frost’s poem:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I’ve promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

P.S: The dark and huge patch of cloud covered the moon and it didn’t rain too. I was humming ‘chaand chupa Baadal mein…’

Thank you!!!

I’ll keep writing.

Later J

Suffering

The entire world is full of suffering. It’s also full of overcoming said a person who has suffered and also dealt with it. Hellen keller, experienced a traumatic time as a child. Appreciate it people that even though she had these problems she has overcome them. Tough times do not last long but tough people do-Christian Bernard, the first person to perform heart transplant, when he was suffering from broken ribs and perforated lung he never gave up, for, his father told him ‘suffering gives strength’. Shahrukh khan, the famous Bollywood actor though suffered a back pain, never allowed it to hinder his acting career. Stephen Hawking, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, suffers from a motor neuron disease, which didn’t prevent him from continuing his research. Appreciate it people.

Dr. Cristian Bernard

Stephen Hawking

Every man has his limitations. All these people had their limitations and crying over it doesn’t help us to overcome them. We’re not the only one with limitations. If Stephen hawking were to cry over his disease he wouldn’t have survived or his famous book ‘The Brief History of Time’ would never have been published. Appreciate it people. Dhirubhai Ambani, the founder chairman of Reliance industries, suffered a lot too. If he had cursed his poverty, Reliance probably wouldn’t have existed.

Dhirubhai Ambani

      

So what should we do? Be persistent. Everything falls into its place. There are three kinds of people on earth: the foolish, the clever and the wise. When a fool meets an obstacle, he falls into it and is crushed. When the clever person meets one, he walks around it. However, when the wise person meets one, he gets into it, finds a solution, and makes sure it is no longer an obstacle.

Be a wise man. Look the problem over and above its level. Then it doesn’t seem like a problem to you. Every problem has a solution. Problems are to find a solution. Believe me people; one daring step may change your whole life. I don’t say that you’ll get the problem solved immediately. A lot of struggle and hard work is necessary.

Risk the things. To eat an egg, you must break the shell. Progress always involves risk. You can’t steal the second base and keep your foot on the first. To cross your limitations you need to take risk and risking needs courage, for you may lose, then the courage helps you to rise up again. Why do we fall? So that we can learn to rise up again.

Never give up. All the limitations that we suffer from are just physical. We’ve a mind and which is a wonderful advantage over other animals. We’ve the power to think. We can overcome any kind of problem. All we need to have is patience, courage and the desire to overcome it. Appreciate that we’ve brains. Nothing is impossible.

Coming back to suffering, if we overcome our limitations it’s no longer a suffering. We probably jump out and start celebrating. Suffering is a platform to make ourselves perfect. Sufferings are inevitable. Every time you suffer you try to overcome it which makes you tough. You will be satisfied if you suffer and solve it yourself.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scar.

So people next time when you suffer from something don’t curse it or on your life, instead welcome it and solve it. Believe me you’ll be satisfied with your life.

 The best way to avoid a problem is to solve it!

All the best.

Keep Suffering.

I’ll keep writing.

Later :)

A visit to a village of KIDS

Waiting for Lokesh outside the university gate, I was thinking about how children could get love from a person who is not actually their mother? As I heard that SOS Childrens’ Village has ten children in a group with its caretaker called ‘mother’. As I was lost in thought, he arrived and I waved at him. We both started to SOS situated at 16 KMs from GITAM University where we are pursuing our B.Tech education. On the way I took my cam outside my bag carefully holding the tag and started to take photographs. We didn’t talk much about anything except how beautiful the route and its surroundings were. I asked about Ronak who met with an accident and Lokesh was narrating the incident and accident. Meanwhile, I saw us crossing the board on our right side pointing to a muddy road to left for SOS. I told him immediately as we just passed it when Lokesh took a turn and went in that direction.

SOS House

                       SOS faces east and has a big gate. As we were nearing it, a watchman saw us and opened the gate. We parked the bike. This place looked like a gurukul, an Indian school which is residential and shishyas (students) gain knowledge under guru. This place looked like a residential community. As we entered the SOS, to the right were staff rooms and office rooms. And to the left side were the houses where children reside with their mother. As we still move further passing all the 14 houses we were in a ground with a basketball court and swings across. Children were playing in the ground. At some places there were benches to sit. I saw two women, probably mothers, sitting and discussing something to the left of the ground. We were talking about SOS when Lokesh got a call from the director to meet Mr.Murthy and that he’ll assist us in distributing sweets and chocolates. I saw a kid gardening and a woman was helping him. I thought the kid was learning gardening and I don’t even know how to plant a tree. We were told to wait in the office, and I was taking pictures while he was waiting. A woman was approaching him. She looked slim and probably in her late 20s. We went to office. She introduced herself as Padmini. She was asking our whereabouts. I, hating the silence between us, started the conversation by asking if all the children went to same school. She nodded no. I wanted to ask the reason but the situation changed when Lokesh told that it was a beautiful environment, to which I agreed. She was telling how a newly born baby was found in an auto. She asked us to go to each house and distribute sweet box and chocolates. The watchman brought the packets from the office room where we left them the day before.

You all Must study well.

Happy With Your Visit

Thank You all of You

                   We went to the first house, Lokesh was removing his sandals and I thought, ‘oh no! I’ve to remove my shoes everywhere 14 times?’ Then I decide to have them on. As we went into house we saw children watching a movie on television. Each house had a refrigerator, television and minimum furniture. Miss Padmini was telling all the children and to mother in each house about Lokesh and me. All the children were wishing Happy Birthday to him and saying hi - byes to both of us calling Lokesh annaya and Shyam annaya (that’s my name). Annaya means elder brother. Lokesh was saying, “Thank youuuuu !!!”. I guess you got the expression he gave the kids. In the other house all the kids were sitting on floor and mother was serving them milk. Meanwhile a watchman Rama swami joined us holding a packet. In another house all kids gathered outside in a corridor and started singing birthday song. In some other houses children were sitting in the corridor and studying as it was already time for study. When coming back through the house where we already had been to, kids were shouting, “Lokesh annaya, Shyam annaya BYEEE!!!” We shouted them back, “BYEEE !!!”. I took some photographs of kids. I talked to some kids. In the eleventh house, Miss Padmini asked the mother to get us some water meanwhile we took some photographs with children. As we sat down to drink she also served us some sweets. Miss Padmini said she is the best mother awardee. She was saying about her that she is the mother of 20 children. Among them, ten are grown up and are pursuing higher education in residential institute outside of SOS. Remaining kids are studying here. She showed us the house. All the houses are in the same format. Later she said that she saw us passing the house that evening but thought that we’re some visitors. Then I realized the exact position of house because it was already dark and I couldn’t figure out how Miss Padmini was taking us to each house. we passed by the house as we entered that evening to check out the village to left most. Then going back to office we gave the sweets to watchman and staff.

Happy Birthday BRO

This is for you !!!

Lokesh with Children

Me with Kids

Birthday Greetings

what's your name???

Thank you!!!

                     Seeing the children over there, I did not feel that they were unhappy. They looked cheerful. They looked satisfied and content. I saw a board with a quote “Bringing up children is an art which doesn’t come with mere learning but by experience”. Maybe those ‘mother’s are doing well in their job. Whatever it is, the cheerful wishing of children made us feel happy. Coming back to my question about how someone could take care of children as their own, I still have no answer. But the happy faces on the children told me that they sure did a good job. I was happy that our trip added a little smile on their faces. Who in the world would not like new friends? I am sure that I cannot give them all the happiness in the world, but was contended with the smile I could put on then at least that evening. I felt satisfied by just looking at them. I couldn’t figure out what type of satisfaction I got, but somewhere deep in my heart I felt satisfied in ways that I cannot express


Later :)